Thread: 53 Is back from the Body Shop

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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I'm just setting here purely amazed that you've had 2 different engines in it and yet to drive it on the freeway at freeway speeds..................

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Yep, 3,000 miles and no interstate I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. We like to take black tops and hi ways ( unless it's Nebraska or New Mexico )

It was time to add cruise to Rita. I don't know what the deal is but my ankle gets real mad at me if I use the gas pedal longer that an hour at a time. I ordered a Rostra universal kit with an early style turn signal control. It only took about a Saturday morning to install it and It works great! I dread it every time I got to add some wiring under the dash It's pretty busy under there.

Kool. How much have you been driving Rita this summer?

Not as much as last year, only about 1600 so far. Last year we had 3k on before we put it away but we got about a month and a half of good weather left yet so hopefully we get some more on it. I told my wife I would like 20K on it before we head out to Washington state with it in a few years, I want to make sure it's reliable. We are hoping to be in your state this coming Memorial day week. I don't know if we'll be close enough to visit though, we are thinking of staying in the Pensacola area. We'll have a Dodge and not Rita

Hey, at least you've been driving it! This summer has been weird for weather. This fall should be good driving like you said. Now if those pesky mosquitoes would just go away! I may have to come up to your area to have the Camaro dyno tuned. If it happens on a weekend I'll let you know.

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There's a couple wheel dynos buy me. There's one in Tea South Dakota which is right by Sioux Falls, and Schwanke Motors in Minnesota has one. They do a lot of Ls Motors. And an update on how much I drove Rita this year, turns out I only put a thousand on so far, the odometer reads 4200

I'll be taking it to Excessive Autosports in Sioux Falls, SD. I have some friends that have taken their cars their and he knows what he's doing. I've heard too many bad things about the ones local and they charge way too much.

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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I'll be taking it to Excessive Autosports in Sioux Falls, SD. I have some friends that have taken their cars their and he knows what he's doing. I've heard too many bad things about the ones local and they charge way too much.

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That's the one I was thinking of by Tea, I thought they would have a Tea address because they are right across the interstate from there. It's kinda ironic because I talked to them about if it was a good idea or possible to build a reliable 5.3 to 400 hp at the rear wheels. I used to own a 71 RS that I was going to do an LS swap in He was super helpful and not a rush to get me off the phone answering any questions I had.

Well, sometime we'll see what a 5.3 with a BTR stage 3 truck cam and a 4 speed will do. In trucks with autos they seem to be around 340hp or so to the rear tires.

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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

There's a couple wheel dynos buy me. There's one in Tea South Dakota which is right by Sioux Falls, and Schwanke Motors in Minnesota has one. They do a lot of Ls Motors. And an update on how much I drove Rita this year, turns out I only put a thousand on so far, the odometer reads 4200

There's also a guy in Watertown who does some really exceptional dyno tuning, mostly on Ford stuff, but he does do other brands.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Hey, at least you've been driving it! This summer has been weird for weather. This fall should be good driving like you said. Now if those pesky mosquitoes would just go away! I may have to come up to your area to have the Camaro dyno tuned. If it happens on a weekend I'll let you know.

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If you end up taking the car to Tea, let me know. That's only about 50 miles from me.

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

If you end up taking the car to Tea, let me know. That's only about 50 miles from me.

Dave, will do. I haven't scheduled it yet. Once I hear it run I can try to schedule the time/trip.

Exciting build

I had to put an outside antenna back on Rita. I filled the original hole when I was doing the body work on it thinking it was the dumbest place possible that anyone could put an antenna. Little did I know then that it really is the only spot where you can put one because the hood will break it off when it opens if it's any further forward and if it's on the passenger side, it will be in the way of the rear side mirror. I learned that the hidden antenna is a joke and I mounted one underneath the pickup and it was better but still awful. I found a template on where to drill the hole and when I was just about done drilling I heard my backing plate that I used to weld up the hole fall down. I got the hole in the exact same place as the original so I was happy, and I can pick up stations like XM Radio now!

A couple more pics, It's about as close to the hood as you would want to get!